Thursday night was a turning point for these young Caps, whether it manifests itself in a win Saturday or not. But don't take my word for it - here's the boss:

Our team is bigger and tougher than the Flyers. They know it now and we know it now.

We now know how to play playoff hockey, NHL style.

From the top down, they're saying all the right things, and they believe every word of it.

In theory, at least, the mountain standing before the Caps at present isn't unscalable - win at home (where they were 23-15-3 this year), win in Philly with all the pressure in the world on the Flyers to close out the series at home (where, incidentally, the Caps have won four of their last six games), then come back home and finish the series with a victory over a similarly young team in the midst of an epic collapse.

In practice, of course, that's much easier said than done. Only twenty times in NHL history has a team come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-seven series (the Caps have been involved in four of those series, including 1988's comeback win against the Flyers) out of 219 such situations.

"Twenty?" defenceman Steve Eminger asked on Friday. "Why not 21?"

Indeed.

But win or lose, the Caps will look back on Thursday night as something of a coming of age. Win or lose, this Flyers team has provided the perfect playoff baptism for these Caps. They do a lot of what you need to do to win in the playoffs, and they've exposed precisely the "right" Caps weaknesses. Had the Caps met the Penguins or Canadiens in the first round and fallen short, they'd probably be able to convince themselves rather easily that they were out-skilled. But this Flyers team - through three games - showed the Caps that they were being out-worked and out-muscled. And come springtime in the NHL, it's those latter attributes that are the far more valuable to possess.

This series is far from over. Or perhaps the end is nigh. But coming back from a 3-1 deficit isn't impossible, despite that 20-for-219 number. To put that stat in apples-to-oranges perspective, the Beatles recorded 214 songs from 1962 to 1970 and had 20 Number One singles. In other words, the Caps have about as much chance of winning this series as Lennon/McCartney had of writing a chart-topping single in their prime.

LOL @ Journey being the Caps' rallying cry. Is Ovechkin just a small town girl living in a lonely world?

Had the Caps met the Penguins or Canadiens in the first round and fallen short, they'd probably be able to convince themselves rather easily that they were out-skilled. But this Flyers team - through three games - showed the Caps that they were being out-worked and out-muscled. And come springtime in the NHL, it's those latter attributes that are the far more valuable to possess.

That's very nicely put. Playing the Flyers makes you a better team. I think the team who beats the Flyers in the playoffs has an incredibly high winning percentage in their next series. I'm too lazy to calclulate it, though.

As far as playing the Flyers making teams stronger, I did some checking on how teams who got past the Flyers did in the next round since 1995. Bold means the team won their next series. In italics means they lost their next series in seven games.

Don't sprain your shoulder patting yourself on the back. If anything got under his skin, it was the Flyers themselves.

And if you haven't seen him play up to the fans before, check out clips of him playing in Buffalo after the Briere incident. He feeds off the "villain" role - it certainly doesn't negatively impact his play.

Interesting stuff on the after-Flyers series. The way they play, it's surprising that teams aren't drained and don't go out meekly in the following round. Guess the Flyers battle-test 'em.

Interesting stuff on the after-Flyers series. The way they play, it's surprising that teams aren't drained and don't go out meekly in the following round. Guess the Flyers battle-test 'em.

It also shows that the Flyers don't lose to teams that aren't totally legit.

Normally I'd agree with you about Ovechkin being more frustrated with the Flyer D than the Flyers' fans, but that outburst was aimed at both.

I'm not patting myself on the back this time--I wasn't at either Game 3 or Game 4, can't take any credit. But I will be there today in less than four hours. If I can manage to get Ovechkin to scream "Fuck You" at his home crowd, then I'll sprain my shoulder :)

After Briere first goal in game one (the one where he came out of the penalty box to get a breakout pass), he came flying over to the section next to the box to give it to a fan who had been mercilessly taunting him. So, yes players do hear what fans say. And it can motivate them.

I will take it. Fedorov's penalty was SO WEAK. I don't know what these refs are doing. I thought the penalty on the Flyers for interference was pretty weak too, in fairness. But whatever, I'll take the W. All the pressure is on the Flyers now to win at home.

I gotta say, I don't understand the F Ovechkin chants in Philly. Are you guys really that bitter? It's not like he's Claude Lemieux in Detroit or anything. I smell a breakout game for Ovie on Monday (but he needs to drive it wide on the breakout instead of launching the same snapshot from the top of the circle every time.

Great games by Fedorov, Poti, Semin, et al. Even Kozlov played well at times. Brashear continues to be a force; other than the mental breakdown by Cooke, the checking lines were superb yet again.

Am I the only one who thinks this Monday/Tuesday back-to-back for Games 6 and 7 is a bunch of crap? I don't think it benefits/disadvantages either team, but do think that you'd get your best hockey with, y'know, a day off in between.

@ scott,It's not that I expected Flyers fans to be classier than that, I just don't get the hate for Ovechkin. Usually you hate a guy for being a whining slashing bitch (like Briere), not for just being good.

@ Ben: In answer to your earlier question, the only Flyers (or Flyers-related) blogs I've ever really read at all are 700Level and Clarke's Boys. You should start one up - when your readers meet you in person, they're contractually obligated to buy you a beer.

Do you hear that people?! Beer me!

Oh, and pick one - do you fear him or is he not a scoring threat at all? Hopefully you - and the Flyers - think the latter.

In what was being called a tear of the left hamstring, the injury is expected to sideline him for the rest of the series. Said Knuble, via the Flyers PR:

"There was about four minutes left in the 2nd period. [Capitals defenseman Mike] Green had the puck and he was kind of like setting up to shoot. I went down. Maybe I was a little bit too anxious. I don't know. I changed my mind halfway through it. I think my skate got caught and kind of came over my heel and basically my leg was completely straight, bent forward and pulled a hamstring."

If the booing is for Ovechkin trying to draw penalties, fine...he has been doing that more than I'd like. But, it seemed like they were booing him plenty before that. I have seen Flyers going down easy too, but I would admit the Caps seem to be doing it more (I think mostly due to a lack of understanding that refs GENERALLY won't call touchy stuff in the playoffs). With the seemingly random officiating going on this series, I'm amazed they haven't fallen for it more.

Whatever. If the booing for diving, I get that. I hated Kovalev for the same reason. But booing someone just because he's good has always seemed idiotic to me, whether it's Flyers fans vs. Ovie or Caps fans vs. Cindy. I don't think the booing (or chanting "fuck ovechkin," perhaps a new low) is getting to him, but the Flyers players are doing a good job of it.

Keep telling yourselves Ovechkin isn't a scoring threat in this series. He was for a GWG in game 1, and I bet he gets another GWG before it's over.

And I'll tell you - the best fight of the series was on the upper concourse behind sect 421 today. Flyer fan spit beer at a Caps fan. And older guy, late 50s or so, informed of his disagreement. Flyer fan asked what he was going to do about it. So Pops Kabongs him in the coconut. Good fight by all participants.

Can someone please, please, explain the Federov penalty to me? And just for the record I don't think Kozlov should have got a GI penalty on Thurs, nor do I think the Flyer (don't remember who) should have got one today. Both crappy ticky tack BS calls. There has been horrible officiating in this series.

JP, I don't know why have you erased my comment stating the obvious. Fighting comment confirms that. I was sitting in section 421 during game 2 when the fight started there. Philly fans were asing for it. I hope we win on Monday and they will run out of money for Tuesday. Caps found their game, keep believing!

Sometimes I have to delete comments not necessarily for the substance of the comment itself, but for what it's likely to incite, and this whole "your fans are classless," "no, your fans are classless" thing is getting a little old, even if partially true.

I work for a Fortune 100 company headquatered in Philadelphia, in fact, I work for the company that owns Flyers. I go to Philly few times a year for business, and wish headquaters relocated. So, when I made my erased comment I knew what I was talking about. Regardless, back to hockey. If they play the same way they (Caps) played in first period for two more periods in the series and never play as they played in the third period of the last game -- we'll be set. Officiating is... Was watching Boston vs. Montreal game... I don't know, if you can see it, Versus people put delayed penalty on TV, but officials don't call it? Then there was a penalty on Boston, that didn't exist... Man was fighting for a puck. Same goes to Fedorov penalty. If player can't stand up to a one hand push while fighting for position, he doesn't belong to NHL. I was watching a lot of games, refs suck throughout. But they seem to make mistakes one way. Scary, hah?

The officiating has almost become a by-line of the series in and of itself. After the interference call against the Flyer's I happened to hear the Philly fan sitting two seats down from me whining about it. I quickly reminded him of the call on Kozlov the night before. He stopped whining.

I am still puzzled by the call on Fedorov. That was perhaps the single worst call of the game and led to the Flyer's first goal.

While the Flyers have had some bad calls go against them, it sure seems like the majority of them have been called on the Caps. For a team that doesn't share the same reputation as the Flyers when it comes to penalties, you would think it would be the other way around.

On behalf of Flyers fans, I'd like to tell Caps fans to lighten up. We boo everyone and everything. Santa, McNabb, Briere. Dont' take it so personally.

Our claim to fame as a city is a cracked bell that doesn't work. Axe Body Spray is one of our arena's main sponsors. Terry Murray is on our bench. We traded for a player (Briere) only to find out that he was with child. Clarke gave up the entire friggin farm for Lindros. Plus, we used to be the capital of the U.S., but we weren't worthy and it was transferred to the district.

After tonight, i'm thinking once again - We're not Worthy. Good luck in round 2 Caps.

Oh, yeah. Philly Flyers are falling apart. They're the highest payroll in the NHL with least talent. In fact talent is absent. they have speed (Briere), defense (Timonen) and goaltending (Biron). If Caps do what they suppose to do on defense, New York Rangers, here we come!